The Lenovo Group Ltd. has been somewhat candid regarding their potential acquisition targets over the past few months. The PC maker began mulling over a possible partnership with BlackBerry earlier this year and stated that they were looking for the right opportunity. BlackBerry began the review of its strategic options late last year. Lenovo is looking to enhance its mobile-device business and is actively looking for companies that could help them do that.

In an interview with the French publication LesEchos, Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing was asked about the acquisition of BlackBerry. He stated that "for BlackBerry, the file could possibly make sense. But first I have to analyze the market well and understand what is the exact weight of this company" (Google Translate)

Whether or not this means Lenovo would be solely looking at BlackBerry's hardware business or the company as a whole is still to be determined. Some analysts think that the recent security concerns that the U.S government has with Chinese based companies could prevent Lenovo from acquiring the entire company. Either way this is something that is sure to spike BlackBerry stock within the next couple of days.

03-15-2013, 05:36 AM

nickrs

One of the reasons I buy BlackBerry is because it ISN'T Chinese/Korean/Japanese owned! For many years I always bought Ericsson phones but with the transfer to sole Japanese ownership (yes I know the HQ is still in Sweden) I was left with a choice between BlackBerry, Nokia and Motarola (never Apple!) as the only major western owned cellphone companies to consider. I went for BlackBerry and I'm delighted with my new Z10! I really hope BlackBerry survive, thrive and innovate but in Canadian ownership! This isn't a racist post it is to do with my concern that the IT and Comms industry is becoming concentrated in fewer and fewer corporations and those companies exploit European and North American technology and markets without putting anything back.

03-15-2013, 02:36 PM

merlin29

Quote:

Originally Posted by nickrs

One of the reasons I buy BlackBerry is because it ISN'T Chinese/Korean/Japanese owned! For many years I always bought Ericsson phones but with the transfer to sole Japanese ownership (yes I know the HQ is still in Sweden) I was left with a choice between BlackBerry, Nokia and Motarola (never Apple!) as the only major western owned cellphone companies to consider. I went for BlackBerry and I'm delighted with my new Z10! I really hope BlackBerry survive, thrive and innovate but in Canadian ownership! This isn't a racist post it is to do with my concern that the IT and Comms industry is becoming concentrated in fewer and fewer corporations and those companies exploit European and North American technology and markets without putting anything back.

i agree with your reasons for buying Blackberry, same as mine, after Nokia no longer made in Europe, and death of Symbian, Nokia now made in China, so went for Blackberry,
Canadian owned, Nokia gave up and is junior partner to Microsoft, Blackberry should go it alone, they own and control software and hardware, Z10 phone and BB10 software
is a brilliant start, if they allow another company to be a partner, Blackberry would be junior.

03-15-2013, 05:22 PM

Joe Jerde

Good points. Always good to support your local businesses.

04-18-2013, 12:16 PM

loganw

couldnt agree more with all the points

04-25-2013, 04:32 AM

pritesh123

Oh, The acquisition of BB by Lenovo! Does not make sense. Branding and line of approach are quite different as far as both the giants are concerned. Still looking to further progress as anything can happen in business arena.

05-20-2013, 11:47 PM

BrentRichter

If that acquisition happens in any case than it is gonna be a giant leap for Lenovo. They have tried to enter the cellphone market by launching their Android devices but i think that strategy didn't worked out well. So this is definitely gonna be a big turnover for both the companies.

06-03-2013, 01:52 AM

coolrat

If Lenovo or any mainland Chinese company were to buy Blackberry, I would certainly NEVER purchase a Blackberry again. There are many reasons for this opinion.

I also really hope BlackBerry survives, and will continue to innovate under Canadian ownership and continue to contribute to the development of the tech industry in Canada.

First, with the firm located in Canada, it impels a lot of R&D and does a lot of cooperative work with universities in Canada. Second, the company contributes a lot to taxes. The company pays good wages to its employees, offers pensions and in Canada, workers are allowed to unionise (one of the only reasons Canadians don’t work in slave-like conditions is because unions did a lot of work since the 1920s). Also the presence of BB in Canada helps build a good reputation for Canada as a high-techplayer.

Lenovo in China build mainly crap and my Chinese friends who work in the tech industry here (Beijing) regularly laugh at them. Sure you can point to the Thinkpad, which is still awesome, but the fact is that the Thinkpad design team is in Japan, and its the same team basically that IBM put together years ago. All of the locally-designed and manufactured product of Lenovo are … well.. shakey. I’d never buy one. Also, there are no unions in China at all, nor any social welfare system to speak of (oh sure there’s a slap-shod system in place). If BB were owned by Lenovo, Canada would not benefit. In fact the average Chinese wouldn’t benefit either because all the profits accumulate to the super-rich here who basically don’t pay any taxes anyway. The average citizen here simply gets long hours, low pay, and a super-polluted environment to commute to work in every day.

So let’s hope that Blackberry can stay in Canada. If not many of us will switch to Nokia – Finland is pretty cool and maintains one of the highest standards of living in the entire world. Time to support them.